Turkey rejects US bank request on Iran

A Turkish official has refused a US request to scrutinize and then suspend the activities of the Turkey-based Iran's Bank Mellat.

“What binds Turkey are the resolutions of the UN and not US presidential decrees or Congressional decisions,” a Turkish diplomat told the Turkish Daily News.

US officials have told bankers around the world that Iran is funding terrorists and seeking nuclear technology. Banks such as UBS AG and Deutsche Bank AG have responded by ending - or severely reducing - their business with Iran.

However, in Ankara US requests have not been responded to in a similar way, according to officials.

Stating that foreign banks operate according to the regulations set by the current Banking Law and are inspected periodically, the official underlined that the conditions of suspending one bank's operations are clear.

“Obviously we cannot move upon a third party's requests,” he said.

Although some banks in Europe and Japan have bowed to US pressure, a host of analysts and diplomats believe that the move has proved futile.

They opine that the Bush administration's controversial policy of slapping sanctions on Iranian banks is facing a critical challenge, as financial institutions in Russia, China, and much of the Middle East have declined to cut ties with Iranian banks. Link

Vt. lawmakers seek to pull Guard from war

Fed up that Washington hasn’t done more to end the war, a group of Vermont lawmakers said Tuesday that the president no longer has the authority to use Guard troops in Iraq.

State Rep. Michael Fisher, D-Lincoln, said the authority to call up Guard members for Iraq duty has expired because that country no longer poses a threat to U.S. national security.

“The mission authorized in 2002 does not exist,” said Fisher, who plans to introduce a bill backed by 30 colleagues Wednesday that calls on Gov. Jim Douglas to join the effort. “Unless Congress grants a new authorization, the Vermont Guard should revert back to state control.”

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said the Senate would take up similar legislation.

“Bottom line is, if the politicians in Washington aren’t going to do the right thing for our troops, let’s do the right thing by bringing our Vermont Guard members home,” he said. “If Vermont can make one small step forward, I believe others will follow.”

A Douglas spokesman said the governor can’t stop the use of Guard troops in the war.

“It’s clear that’s there’s no legal basis for stopping the federalization of the National Guard when Congress has authorized and continues to fund a war,” said Douglas’ spokesman Jason Gibbs. “The bottom line is this is a federal issue.”

He said Douglas would rather see Congress develop an exit strategy to bring the troops home as soon as possible.

Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie, head of the Vermont National Guard, refused to comment until he could read the bill.

Fisher said similar proposals were being considered by lawmakers in Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island

“Most of us standing here, maybe all of us, have made objections in the past about the morality or wisdom of this war,” Fisher said. “Today, we are limiting ourselves to one vital principle: the rule of law.”

“Questions about whether the war is going well or the surge is going well, should be left for other days,” he added. “We have a special interest in the welfare of the Vermont National Guard.” Link

Election power of the Israel lobby

Why lovers of Israel should vote for McCain (according to Lieberman)” “In an interview with Ha’aretz, Lieberman says he believes McCain is the candidate most likely to thwart a nuclear Iran”.

“But this is predicted upon the man’s becoming in every fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…. we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, and American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house; and we have room for but one soul [sic] loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” - President Theodore Roosevelt, Jan. 3, 1919

Around the world there is an indoctrinated discomfort whenever any discussion of Israel, the Israel Lobby, the Holocaust, Jewish Power, and Anti-Semitism arise. This discomfort has resulted from the most sophisticated media and public relations campaign the modern world has ever experienced—silence is the norm and don’t ever forget it or else our wrath will descend upon you. Ironically despite such enormous power in the political, economic, media, movies, and academic fields in America, a narcissistic paranoia still occupies the hearts and minds of Jews, understandably after 2000 years of Christian persecution, but tragically such power and fear are the instruments Israel and its lobby utilize to silence the west as Israel comfortably commits genocide and ethnic cleansing against the entire Palestinian population. Yet, the irony is that most Jews around the world are shocked that such political and economic power and Israel’s murderous policies against the hapless trapped Palestinians would generate such an exponential rise in worldwide Anti-Semitism. Thus the logic is --leave the Palestinians to us to murder, imprison, demolish their homes and farms, shoot their children at will, but we still don’t understand why you hate us?

American Jews, fairly or unfairly, have been accused of having dual loyalty for both their adopted or birth country and a foreign nation, Israel. According to Philip Weis in his excellent blog; “The issue is a long-held concern among Jewish critics of Zionism. In 1970, a leading Jewish anti-Zionist, Rabbi Elmer Berger, learned that several Jewish Americans had served in the Israeli Defense Forces, having gained automatic citizenship in Israel. Berger worried about Jewish identity. He feared that American Jews would be called upon to define their religious identity in terms of identification with a neo-colonialist "theocratic" state that was dehumanizing Arabs. (He was right!) And he feared that American Jews would be torn in allegiance, or be seen to be torn in allegiance. (“Dual Loyalty: Why Did a Neocon Vote in Both Israel and U.S.?" January 16, 2007). More

U.S. loses its status as economic world power

The World Economic Forum has proved to be an uncanny barometer of global trends. Over the past decade, the United States has been lionized as world leader, economic giant and home of high-tech wizards such as Bill Gates.

When the high-tech bubble burst, when deficits rose, when the Iraq war went sour, the shine on the American model dimmed. But, despite widespread dismay over U.S. foreign policy, few here used to question America's role as the world's unipolar power.

What a difference a year makes. Davos 2008 has laid bare a world in which no superpower seems to be in charge. The unipolar American moment is deemed over, in part a casualty of the Bush administration's political and economic policies, in larger part the result of global economic changes that are shifting wealth elsewhere.

But we have not entered a multipolar world: China and India, though on the rise, aren't ready to take the global lead, nor can Europe do so. The consensus at Davos seems to be that we now live in a "nonpolar" world, with America too strong to stand on the sidelines, but too weak to implement its agenda alone.

The metaphor for Davos 2008 came when its executive chairman, Klaus Schwab, suggested onstage to Condoleezza Rice that America was a piano and the world the orchestra. Playing metaphorically on the secretary of state's talents as a pianist, Schwab asked whether the piano and orchestra could play together in harmony.

Rice asked whether Schwab wanted to be the conductor. But among the 2,500 top chief executives, politicians and intellectuals at the meeting, many believe there is no conductor at all.

The U.S. financial crisis grew out of years of massive lending for subprime mortgages during a housing bubble. The collapse of the bubble has undercut banks and revealed serious flaws in the entire U.S. financial system. Added to American foreign policy failures like Iraq and debacles like the response to Hurricane Katrina, this creates an image of American incompetence. More

Vt. town hammered over petition to arrest, prosecute Bush and Cheney

Officials in Brattleboro, Vt., have been inundated with e-mails and phone calls since outsiders learned about a petition that calls for local police to arrest President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the Associated Press says.

The town's Selectboard approved the measure last Friday, meaning that voters in Brattleboro will be asked to vote on the following resolution in early March:

Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?

The Rutland Herald reports that town officials stopped answering the phone on Monday because of the "nastiness" of the calls they were receiving from websurfers across the country. "We're getting e-mails and phone calls, nasty, nasty e-mails, I've only a gotten a few," Town Clerk Annette Cappy tells the paper. "You couldn't repeat most of those calls, they are nasty and nasty." More

Iran vows to win nuclear tussle with West

A defiant President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Tehran was nearing its target of producing nuclear energy and launched a new tirade against Israel as world powers seek to impose new sanctions on Iran.

"We are moving towards the summit on the nuclear path," he said in a speech in Bushehr, the site of Iran's first nuclear power plant which Tehran expects to be commissioned in October.

"Iranians... will not back down one iota in defence of their rights," Ahmadinejad told cheering crowds.

Iran has been slapped with two sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment and a third package is currently being considered by the Security Council.

But Ahmadinejad said: "The nuclear issue was the most important challenge since the (1979 Islamic) revolution but with the help of God and your resistance, it is ending in favour of the Iranian nation."

The West fears that Iran is using its nuclear drive to try to build atomic weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied, saying it is aimed at generating electricity.

Uranium enrichment is a process which makes nuclear fuel but can also be diverted to produce the fissile core of atomic bombs.

The Security Council on Monday held informal talks on a third sanctions resolution, a draft of which was agreed by the five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and United States -- plus Germany. AFP

Soldier Suicides at Record Level

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who was waiting for the Army to decide whether to court-martial her for endangering another soldier and turning a gun on herself last year in Iraq, attempted to kill herself Monday evening. In so doing, the 25-year-old Army reservist joined a record number of soldiers who have committed or tried to commit suicide after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I'm very disappointed with the Army," Whiteside wrote in a note before swallowing dozens of antidepressants and other pills. "Hopefully this will help other soldiers." She was taken to the emergency room early Tuesday. Whiteside, who is now in stable physical condition, learned yesterday that the charges against her had been dismissed.

Whiteside's personal tragedy is part of an alarming phenomenon in the Army's ranks: Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.

At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began. Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with about 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

The Army was unprepared for the high number of suicides and cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among its troops, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued far longer than anticipated. Many Army posts still do not offer enough individual counseling and some soldiers suffering psychological problems complain that they are stigmatized by commanders. Over the past year, four high-level commissions have recommended reforms and Congress has given the military hundreds of millions of dollars to improve its mental health care, but critics charge that significant progress has not been made.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed severe stress on the Army, caused in part by repeated and lengthened deployments. Historically, suicide rates tend to decrease when soldiers are in conflicts overseas, but that trend has reversed in recent years. From a suicide rate of 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2001 -- the lowest rate on record -- the Army reached an all-time high of 17.5 suicides per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2006.

Last year, twice as many soldier suicides occurred in the United States than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Washington Post

UN Security Council won't condemn Israel

Senior Israeli officials say Libya, Council's chair this month, has decided to withdraw its demand to denounce Jewish state over siege imposed on Gaza Strip. Foreign Minister Livni expresses her satisfaction over move, says 'Israel should not have to apologize for actions aimed at defending its citizens'

The United Nations Security Council will not discuss the proposal to condemn Israel over the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Jewish state, following an adamant battle held by the Israeli delegation to the UN and backed by the United States.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed her satisfaction over the move.
Senior diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said Tuesday that Libya had withdrawn its condemnation proposal which it has been advancing over the past two weeks, after Israel opposed any negotiations on the wording of such a proposal.

Sources in Livni's office said that Israel's insistence, backed by the US, was what caused Libya, the Security Council's chair this month, to go back on its demand that the discussion be held.

According to the Israeli sources, the failure to hold a special Security Council session on the matter will prevent a condemnation statement.

At first the Arab states demanded a one-sided condemnation against Israel on the backdrops of its operations in Gaza. Libya and other Arab countries claimed that the blockade imposed by the Jewish state was causing a severe humanitarian crisis.

The international community, however, responded by demanding that the rocket attacks on Israel be denounced as well.

Foreign Minister Livni instructed the Israeli delegation not to enter negotiation on the resolution's wording. Despite additional attempts by Libya to hold such talks, the Jewish state refused to compromise and was backed by the US. More

Ron Paul 2008: RICO suit filed against

Ron Paul 2008: RICO suit filed against ABC, MSNBC, FOX, CNN, CBS, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald and The San Diego Herald-Tribune
What the public needs to understand is that FOX, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and the other established *mainstream ‘ mass media’/news sources [*see definition @ Wikipedia.org] are perpetrating criminal fraud (via omissions, distortions and outright lies) and a deliberate censorship of Dr. Ron Paul in 2008 Presidential race?with malice and aforethought and evil intent to control the 2008 presidential elections. This is an outrage and ‘We the People’ need to organize against this dangerous plot and TAKE ACTION by filing ‘class action’ criminal charges and civil suits against the owners and executives of these news sources. This illegal censorship is not only harming Americans because they wield the power to control the outcome of elections via the quantity and quality of the news coverage they provide the candidates; it constitutes an unAmerican and antiAmerican criminal enterprise; not to fail to mention a violation of the first amendment/freedom of the press. These accused individuals?the elitist media executives?exercise monopolized and Fascist-control over media/news sources with intent to get the candidate preferred by them elected while simultaneously wrongfully hiding and/or playing down the true facts, popularity and success of the Ron Paul campaign.

Please spread this message and let’s get criminal charges and a class action lawsuit executed against this dangerous organized crime syndicate identified as the present mainstream media outlets which are collaborating in a RICO [ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1961-1968; reference: www.ricoact.com] conspiracy to censor Dr. Ron Paul and control the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election. This is definitely ‘RICO’ if it can be shown that any of the accused media executives have donated money to any of the other presidential candidates, directly or indirectly! The accused individuals herein have wrongfully utilized their outrageous MONOPOLY over the media across America to injure Dr. Ron Paul and his millions of supporters; all Americans, in fact. These accused individuals need to go to prison upon conviction. They need to be criminally prosecuted and have their personal assets seized. They need to have their Federal FCC licenses revoked for participating in this criminal conspiracy. Help us spread this felony information far and wide. Let’s get these elitist outlaws criminally prosecuted and civilly sued.
I’ll get the ball rolling right now with my sworn affidavit, a criminal complaint:
Gage County,
State of Nebraska
SWORN STATEMENT More

The Real State of the Union

"The State of the Union is strong", according to President George W Bush but many would disagree with that viewpoint. RICHARD NEVILLE has edited Bush's speech to improve clarity.

“Lame Duck” citizens and the global economy

In regards to our ‘global economy’, one is better off reading Dostoevsky’s The Gambler and saying to himself, “at the present moment I must repair to the roulette-table,” than listening to George Bush deluding himself about the fact that “while there is some uncertainty, the financial markets are strong and solid.” The truth is, our global markets have become a “lame duck” and all we can do is wait for the next disaster to shake the corrupt foundation on which things have been run.

As Hugues Rialan, managing director in charge of discretionary asset management at Robeco France puts it, “if they [financial institutions] had a much more transparent communication, we would not have all the bombshells, or rumors of bombshells, that we’re having today, with all the negative implications for the market.”

The fact remains that people are reluctant to utter the word depression, and therefore all we are left with are the words of all those experts who created the mess in the first place. Just before ending 2007, York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, warned us; “I don’t think the central banks are going to make a major policy error, but if they do, this could make 1929 look like a walk in the park.” What has unraveled before our eyes since then, is a grim picture which threatens the very way in which we think of our ‘wonderful democratic societies’ and their ‘solid financial structures’.

We started 2008 with a series of announcements which should have shaken even the most faithful of believers in the goodness of our political and financial institutions. We recovered from our new year celebrations with legendary Wall Street guru and chief investment strategist of Pequot Capital Management, Byron Wien, telling us he expected oil to move between $80 and $115 a barrel, corn to rise to $6 a bushel, and gold to reach $1,000 an ounce. By the 7th of January, David Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch’s chief North American economist, was informing us that “according to our analysis, this [recession] isn’t even a forecast any more but is a present day reality.” More

The Care and Feeding of the Practical Psychopath.

Every generation has its challenges, its wars and its peculiar identity. Every generation replaces the one in front of it and gets replaced by the one behind it. The enemy of each generation is always the same. It changes its clothes and terrain. It moves in and out of political ideologies and religious dogmas but it’s the same enemy.

Defining the enemy isn’t an easy thing. You’re dealing with continuous shape-shifting. You think you are confronting it in front of you when it is actually leaning over your shoulder and advising you. You find that it agrees with you and is on your side only to discover that it has used its seeming alliance to discredit what you believe in; to misrepresent what you believe in.

One day it’s the communists, next day it’s the Nazis, today it’s the Zionists. Tomorrow it will morph into something else. It’s always about disinformation and confusion. It’s always about treachery and deceit. While it is filling your head with Al Qaeda and terrorism it is muscling up against Russia about Kosovo and running Columbian insurgencies against Venezuela. It’s always moving on to the next conflict where it’s selling weapons to both sides. More

The Shameful State of the Union

Here's one thing everyone should be able to agree upon from George Bush's State of the Union address: "We have unfinished business before us."

Apart from that, it's a little difficult to credit much of what he said.

"So long as we continue to trust the people, our nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the state of our Union will remain strong," he concluded.

But the state of our Union is anything but strong. Consider these snapshots:

1. The United States is spending more than $700 billion a year on the military.

The 2008 appropriations bills include $506.9 billion for the Department of Defense and the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy, plus an additional $189.4 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. [1]

Other military funding is located in the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.

Congress has approved nearly $700 billion to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is the appropriated amount. It doesn't include costs to society -- loss of life, injuries, etc. The amount spent on war-fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq now exceeds the inflation-adjusted amount spent on the Vietnam War. [2]

The United States accounts for roughly half of the world's military expenditures. [3]

Depending on how you count, more than half of all discretionary federal spending is now directed to the military. [4]

2. Wealth is concentrating in the United States at a startling rate. More

Spanish Jewish leader urges jail terms for Holocaust denial

Jacobo Israel Garzon: "Holocaust denial is "the threshold of hate speech" and its "depenalization" could lead to the rise in the distribution of Nazi propaganda.

Spanish law had mandated a sentence of up to two years in prison for Holocaust denial but in November Spain's Constitutional Court ruled it falls within freedom of speech and would no longer be punishable with jail.

The court however ruled that imprisonment is a constitutional punishment for any individual convicted of justifying the Holocaust or any other genocide.

In an address to parliament, the federation leader Jacobo Israel Garzon asked
lawmakers to "think about how to once again introduce prison terms for Holocaust denial in the penal code".

Holocaust denial is "the threshold of hate speech" and its "depenalisation"
could lead to the rise in the distribution of Nazi propoganda, he added.

Holocaust denial is specifically targeted by laws in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Romania.

In April 2007 the European Union made inciting racism and xenophobia crimes throughout its 27 member states in a landmark decision tempered by caveats to appease free speech concerns. AFP

Russia to rearrange troops due to U.S. missile shield

Russia's Defense Ministry plans to change the configuration of troops in Kaliningrad in response to U.S. missile shield plans in Central Europe, a high-ranking army official said on Wednesday.

"The General Staff and the main combat training department of the Russian Armed Forces are deciding how we will configure the troops," said Lt. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, who heads the Armed Forces combat training directorate.

The general did not indicate whether the troops in the Kaliningrad Region, Russia's Baltic exclave which borders on Poland, will be substantially reinforced.

The United States is planning to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic to avert possible strikes from "rogue" states, such as Iran.

Russia has fervently opposed Washington's plans, saying the European shield would destroy the strategic military balance and threaten Russia's national interests.

Shamanov also said over 230 billion rubles ($9.4 billion) had been allocated for Armed Forces combat training in 2008. RIA Novosti

Bush: US will 'confront' Iran if necessary

US President George W. Bush warned Iran Monday that the United States will "confront those who threaten our troops" and defend its allies and interests in the Gulf.

In his last State of the Union before a hostile, Democratic-led Congress eager for the end of his term next January, Bush also urged Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, embrace political reforms, and "cease your support for terror abroad."

"But above all, know this: America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf," he said.

Bush's ability to rally international support against Iran has been diminished by a US Intelligence report that Tehran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Turning his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Bush said, "We are also standing against the forces of extremism in the Holy Land, where we have new cause for hope. Palestinians have elected a president (Mahmoud Abbas) who recognizes that confronting terror is essential to achieving a state where his people can live in dignity and at peace with Israel. Israelis have leaders who recognize that a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state will be a source of lasting security.

"This month in Ramallah and Jerusalem, I assured leaders from both sides that America will do, and I will do, everything we can to help them achieve a peace agreement that defines a Palestinian state by the end of this year," he said. "The time has come for a Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side-by-side in peace."

On Iraq, Bush was in a better position than a year ago, when he implored skeptical Americans to embrace his plan to send thousands more troops to Iraq. Ynet News

Iran brushes aside Bush warning

Iran on Tuesday brushed aside US President George W. Bush's warning over "threats to US troops" in his State of the Union speech, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Unfortunately we have been hearing Bush's baseless and unimportant accusations about Iran for the past seven years," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying.

"We advise the US president for the remaining time (of his tenure)... to deal with the real worries of his people harmed by the US economic stagnation... and the severe nervous breakdown the (US) military men dispirited in the occupation of Iraq."

In his speech Monday, Bush warned that Washington will "confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf."

His message echoed US warnings over an early January face-off between US and Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and came as Washington pushed for new UN sanctions against Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme. AFP

Bush’s State of the Union: Mandate for Iran Attack

If it is true Bush — or rather the neocons, using the sock puppet Bush — plan to attack Iran before the decider-commander leaves office in a little less than a year, then the State of Union address seems to send up a couple red flags in that direction.

Consider the following:

When we met last year, militia extremists — some armed and trained by Iran — were wreaking havoc in large areas of Iraq.

Of course, there is no evidence of this, same as there was no evidence Saddam and Osama hung out together and plotted to attack the United States, as the neocons insisted prior to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It was all bull feathers, same as this claim is a calculated lie.

As should be expected with this clan of traitors and warmongers, the lies must go on, or maybe that should be “catapulted”:

Iran is funding and training militia groups in Iraq, supporting Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, and backing Hamas’s efforts to undermine peace in the Holy Land. Tehran is also developing ballistic missiles of increasing range and continues to develop its capability to enrich uranium, which could be used to create a nuclear weapon.

Again, there is a complete paucity of evidence Iran is “training militia groups in Iraq,” a fact underscored by both Def. Sec Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace last year. Kurt Nimmo

Showdown in Blackwater's Backyard

Marshall Adame is a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina's 3rd District, a jurisdiction along the Tar Heel state's low-lying eastern coast that is home to the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune, Air Station Cherry Point, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, as well as Blackwater Worldwide's 7,000-acre corporate headquarters and training facility. Adame is an underdog in the congressional race, where he will likely face seven-term Republican incumbent Walter B. Jones—who brought the term "freedom fries" to Congress—in the general election. Jones has since become an opponent of the Iraq war, atoning for his vote to authorize the war by writing letters of condolence to the families of dead soldiers—a "mea culpa to my Lord," he says. But the incumbent and his Republican party are not the only obstacles Adame will have to overcome if he hopes to take over the 3rd District's congressional seat. He also faces tough opposition from Blackwater.

Despite running as a Democrat in a strongly Republican district, Adame has the sort of military past that is appreciated in these parts. "I am a retired United States Marine," he tells me. "I'm a Vietnam veteran. I spent nine months in Kuwait right after we kicked Saddam out, helping to rebuild the Kuwaiti air force. I spent four years in Egypt with Kaman Aerospace"—a military contractor—"as their logistics leader in that country." More recently, he spent three years in Iraq working on reconstruction projects, ultimately rising to a senior position with the State Department's National Coordination Team in Baghdad, where he oversaw the work of roughly ten Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Two of his sons have served in the U.S. Army in Iraq—one was seriously wounded in an IED attack and is still undergoing reconstructive surgeries; the other is currently on his second 15-month tour, stationed in Tikrit. Now back in North Carolina, Adame has even opened his home to a family of Iraqi refugees.Mother Jones

Sibel Edmonds: 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'

In the last few weeks, UK's Times has run a series of articles about the so-called 'Sibel Edmonds case.' ('For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets, 'FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft' and 'Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe')

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds stumbled into a world of espionage, nuclear black market, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and corruption at the highest levels of the US government.

I interviewed Sibel yesterday regarding the current investigation and reporting by the Times, the failures of the US media, and last week's decision by the Bush administration to legalize the sale of nuclear technology to Turkey, in an apparent effort to exonerate prior criminal activity by officials in his administration.

Sibel also has some urgent 'action items' so that we can stop these dangerous nuclear proliferation activities. I urge you to act on her suggestions. More

White House Idiot of a President Rehearses His Pre-Written Speech to the Captive People of the American Israeli Colony

We Will Never be Silenced by Zionist Hate Spinn

Pentagon: Bush to request for $70 bln to fund wars in 2009

President George W. Bush will ask for 70 billion U.S. dollars approved by Congress to fund Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the fiscal year 2009, the Defense Department said on Monday.

According to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, the White House would submit the request on war funding next week, probably the only one before Bush's presidency ends in January, 2009, leaving the rest of the job to next administration.

"We will ask for 70 billion dollars in an emergency allowance to support global war on terror in 2009," Whitman said.

The war funding request will be sent to Congress along with the administration's request for the regular Pentagon budget for fiscal 2009, which starts on Oct. 1, 2008, which is seen to fuel tension between the White House and Democrats-dominated Congress on war policies.

The congressional Democrats has longtime criticized Bush's administration for compromising domestic programs to war spending, which, according to a congressional report released last week, has reached 691 billion dollars since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The Iraq war, alone, has consumed 440 billion dollars, the report said.

The war fund in the 2008 fiscal year underwent a fierce and long-term battle in Washington, with 190 billion dollars that Bush has asked for still unapproved at Congress.

However, the legislature body green lighted a 70-billion-dollar "bridge fund" in partial war funding for the current fiscal year, which as Democrats said should be enough to sustain the U.S. military operations until around May or June. Link

British PM Wants to Build a "New World Order"

Gordon Brown wants to shake things up in the UN Security Council in order to create a "new world order" and "global society."

Follow this link to the original source: "Brown's secret talks on 'new world order'"
During a two-day trip to India (with another two days in China), British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed his agenda for altering the UN’s power structure. Twice he underscored India’s bid for a permanent place on what he proposes to be an expanded UN Security Council, thereby assuring “India’s rightful place” in a new world order.

More must be done, Brown said, "to make our global institutions more representative." And, "I support changes to the IMF, World Bank, and the G8 that reflect the rise of India and Asia," he continued. Citing India’s explosive economic growth — due in large part to bad U.S. foreign trade policies — he said, "dramatic and seismic shifts in economy, culture and communication are coming to revolutionise the global distribution of wealth, status, power and influence and creating the world anew."According to the New Zealand Herald, "Brown has begun secret talks with other world leaders on far-reaching reform of the United Nations Security Council as part of a drive to create a ‘new world order’ and ‘global society’." He is proposing that the UN Security Council’s original five countries be augmented with the addition of India, Germany, Japan, Brazil and one or two African nations not yet specified. His proposal, reportedly under intense discussion with leaders from both India and China, would not include veto power for the newly added countries — at least initially. JBS

Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, urged his Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis.

Chávez made the suggestion Saturday as he hosted a summit aimed at increasing Latin American integration and countering U.S. influence.

"We should start to bring our reserves here," Chávez said. "Why does that money have to be in the north? You can't put all your eggs in one basket."

To help pool resources within the region, Chávez and other leaders launched a new development bank at the summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.

The left-leaning regional trade alliance supported by Chávez is intended to offer an alternative, socialist path to integration while snubbing U.S.-backed free-trade deals.

Chávez noted that the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, visited Colombia in recent days, saying "that has to do with this summit."

"The empire doesn't accept alternatives," Chávez told the gathering, attended by the presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua, the vice president of Cuba, Carlos Lage, and other leaders.

Chávez warned that U.S. "imperialism is entering into a crisis that can affect all of us" and said Latin America "will save itself alone."

Rice left Colombia on Friday after a trip aimed at reviving a free-trade deal that has stalled in the U.S. Congress. She sidestepped an opportunity to confront Chávez, who accused Colombia and the United States of plotting "military aggression" against Venezuela. IIHT

Suharto, the Model Killer, and His Friends in High Places

In my film Death of a Nation, there is a sequence filmed on board an Australian aircraft flying over the island of Timor. A party is in progress, and two men in suits are toasting each other in champagne. "This is an historically unique moment," says one of them, "that is truly uniquely historical." This is Gareth Evans, Australia’s foreign minister. The other man is Ali Alatas, principal mouthpiece of the Indonesian dictator, General Suharto. It is 1989, and the two are making a grotesquely symbolic flight to celebrate the signing of a treaty that allowed Australia and the international oil and gas companies to exploit the seabed off East Timor, then illegally and viciously occupied by Suharto. The prize, according to Evans, was "zillions of dollars."

Beneath them lay a land of crosses: great black crosses etched against the sky, crosses on peaks, crosses in tiers on the hillsides. Filming clandestinely in East Timor, I would walk into the scrub and there were the crosses. They littered the earth and crowded the eye. In 1993, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Australian Parliament reported that "at least 200,000" had died under Indonesia’s occupation: almost a third of the population. And yet East Timor’s horror, which was foretold and nurtured by the US, Britain and Australia, was actually a sequel. "No single American action in the period after 1945," wrote the historian Gabriel Kolko, "was as bloodthirsty as its role in Indonesia, for it tried to initiate the massacre." He was referring to Suharto’s seizure of power in 1965–6, which caused the violent deaths of up to a million people.

To understand the significance of Suharto, who died on Sunday, is to look beneath the surface of the current world order: the so-called global economy and the ruthless cynicism of those who run it. Suharto was our model mass murderer – "our" is used here advisedly. "One of our very best and most valuable friends," Thatcher called him, speaking for the West. For three decades, the Australian, US and British governments worked tirelessly to minimize the crimes of Suharto’s Gestapo, known as Kopassus, who were trained by the Australian SAS and the British army and who gunned down people with British-supplied Heckler and Koch machine guns from British-supplied Tactica "riot control" vehicles. Prevented by Congress from supplying arms direct, US administrations from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton, provided logistic support through the back door and commercial preferences. In one year, the British Department of Trade provided almost a billion pounds worth of so-called soft loans, which allowed Suharto buy Hawk fighter-bombers. The British taxpayer paid the bill for aircraft that dive-bombed East Timorese villages, and the arms industry reaped the profits. However, the Australians distinguished themselves as the most obsequious. In an infamous cable to Canberra, Richard Woolcott, Australia’s ambassador to Jakarta, who had been forewarned about Suharto’s invasion of East Timor, wrote: "What Indonesia now looks to from Australia …is some understanding of their attitude and possible action to assist public understanding in Australia …" Covering up Suharto’s crimes became a career for those like Woolcott, while "understanding" the mass murderer came in buckets. This left an indelible stain on the reformist government of Gough Whitlam following the cold-blooded killing of two Australian TV crews by Suharto’s troops during the invasion of East Timor. "We know your people love you," Bob Hawke told the dictator. His successor, Paul Keating, famously regarded the tyrant as a father figure. When Indonesian troops slaughtered at least 200 people in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, East Timor, and Australian mourners planted crosses outside the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, foreign minister Gareth Evans ordered them destroyed. To Evans, ever-effusive in his support for the regime, the massacre was merely an "aberration." This was the view of much of the Australian press, especially that controlled by Rupert Murdoch, whose local retainer, Paul Kelly, led a group of leading newspaper editors to Jakarta, fawn before the dictator. Lew Rockwell.com

US hails Suharto as a 'historic figure'

Russia Air, Ground Forces to conduct joint drills in April

Units of Russia's Air Force and Ground Forces will conduct a joint exercise in the country's Caspian region in April 2008, a senior military official said on Tuesday.

"The exercise will focus on rehearsing command and control of an Air Force and Air Defense Forces combined-arms formation" in what the military terms the Central Asian strategic sector, said Lt. Gen. Valery Stytsenkov, head of the Air Force Combat Training Directorate.

He said units will also practice interoperability and teamwork with aviation, missile defense, antiaircraft, and electronic warfare assets of the Air Force, the Air Defense Forces, and the Ground Forces.

The general said preparations were under way, exercise grounds were being tested and reconnoitered, and that relevant paperwork was being processed.

He said the exercise will cover an extensive area, including the Kapustin Yar and Ashuluk training grounds, both in south Russia's Astrakhan region near the Caspian Sea.

Stytsenkov said the first such exercise was conducted in 2007 after a long hiatus. RIA Novosti

Pelosi and Reid have failed America

By now it should be crystal clear that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are totally unfit for the leadership positions that they hold in Congress; and so the members of the House and Senate should take immediate steps to force them to resign or to remove them from their positions.

Their stonewalling of the American people can no longer be tolerated. Both now have proven that they no longer represent the best interests of this nation.

The people of America have watched the charade that has been taking place in this Congress since the decisive elections of 2006 when the Democratic Party took control of both the House and the Senate. At that point, the majority of Americans had had enough of the insane Iraq War, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the neocons' madness, tax cuts for the wealthy, scandal after scandal in this administration and the Republican Party. Americans wanted change, a new direction, a new vision, an end to the blatant attempts to negate the Constitution of the United States.

Regardless of these strong desires for swift, positive change Americans received no positive actions from the newly installed Democratic Party majority in both the House and the Senate -- what they did get was Pelosi and Reid, the absolute worst possible combination that could have been created to lead the critical movement to turn our nation from the disastrous course that was leading to the destruction of our democracy. They needed patriotic courage, conviction, strong, unrelenting leadership, ideas and, above all, leaders who would show America that a new day had dawned. It just did not happen. Online Journal

Blueprint for Global Enslavement

US, Britain stung by an Afghan temper

Admiral William Fallon, head of the US Central Command, traveled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital, last Thursday. It was the first visit by a high-level US military officer since Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov evicted American troops from the Karshi-Khanabad airbase in Uzbekistan (used for ferrying supplies for Afghan operations) in retaliation for the covert American encouragement of the abortive Andizhan uprising in the Ferghana Valley in May 2005.

Central Asian leaders can be excessively polite. Karimov told Fallon, "We see your visit ... as a meaningful event in relations between the US and Uzbekistan." Karimov went on to say the visit was a chance to discuss "issues of common interest, first of all in the military and arms sphere". To be sure, Karimov knew his strategic defiance of the George W Bush administration has paid off splendidly well.

He will be justified in estimating that Washington is desperately keen to regain influence in Tashkent so it can effectively counter Russian and Chinese influence in Central Asia. He sizes up that the medium-term US objective will also be to consolidate a permanent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence in Central Asia. In short, the Bush administration has learnt the hard way that Uzbekistan is a key country in Central Asia.

But in immediate terms, US Central Command is badly in need of Tashkent's cooperation for operating a second air corridor to Afghanistan so that the heavy dependence on Islamabad gets somewhat reduced. More

Iran and Bush's Crisis of Truth

“Iran is a threat to world peace.” Iran is “the world’s leading sponsor of terror.” So declared President Bush in his recent trip to the Middle East. Iran, he said, is seeking to “intimidate its neighbors with ballistic missiles and bellicose rhetoric.”

By now most of us are familiar with the President’s feelings and rhetoric concerning Iran. They have a familiar ring. They sound a lot like the buildup to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Recently the Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit investigative reporting institution, published a report: “Iraq: the War Card.” The report documented 935 false statements made by President Bush and seven top administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001 concerning the national security threat posed by Iraq to the U.S.

The top liar was the President. He made, according to the report, 232 false statements about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and 28 false statements about Iraq’s links with al-Qaeda.

In this light we should examine carefully any statement the President makes concerning Iranian threats to world peace.

A look at a map of the region helps put things in perspective. We see that Iran has 13 “next-door neighbors.” Seven share land borders with Iran while six countries lie directly across the Persian Gulf.

Of these 13 all but five (Oman, Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan) contain U.S. military bases. Of these five, Oman and the U.S. negotiated a 10-year agreement in 2000 which gives the U.S. access to three Omani air fields.

The other four neighbors are all recipients of U.S. aid. Pending congressional approval, this will include President Bush’s recent offer to Saudi Arabia of a $20 billion arms package.

Two of Iran’s neighbors, Afghanistan and Iraq, have recently been invaded and occupied by the U.S. Another neighbor, Pakistan, is a nuclear power and a U.S. ally in the “Global War on Terror.” Another nuclear power and U.S. ally, Israel, lies within striking distance of Iran.

In the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navy Times, the U.S. is currently deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and two expeditionary strike groups.

A partial list of this force includes an aircraft carrier; two amphibious assault ships; three guided-missile frigates; four guided-missile cruisers; six-guided missile destroyers; two dock landing ships; two amphibious transport dock ships; and two fast-attack submarines (one deployed independently of any strike group).

In sum, Iran is nearly encircled by the air, land and naval forces of the world’s most powerful military.

Iran may not be run by saints. No country is. But Iran has never threatened the U.S. Nor has Iran ever invaded another country. The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has pledged there will be no Iranian nuclear weapons, nor will Iran start a war.

On the other hand, preemptive war is now openly acknowledged to be an “option” in U.S. political/military strategy. We demonstrated this convincingly when we invaded Iraq -- a country which had never harmed us, was not preparing to harm us and had never even threatened to harm us.

Nevertheless we initiated a conflict which has, to date, killed at least 150,000 and created 4,000,000 refugees. More

None Dare Call It Treason

Who is stealing our nuclear secrets – and why are they being shielded by the authorities?

The Valerie Plame case is, by journalistic standards, ancient history, and naturally any follow-up on a once-important story is considered bad form. Yet there is an interesting – and rather scary – new twist to the narrative. It turns out that Scooter Libby and friends weren't the first to "out" CIA agent Plame, whose alleged employer, a company known as Brewster Jennings, was really a cover for a CIA unit investigating nuclear proliferation issues.

The London Times reveals that a former top U.S. State Department official tipped off Turkish agents about Brewster Jennings' CIA connection, according to Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator assigned to produce English-language transcripts of intercepted conversations of Turkish targets – in this case recordings of Turkish embassy officials and a top State Department official discussing, among other things, Brewster Jennings' relationship to the CIA.

As the Times reports, the recordings were made "between the summer and autumn of 2001. At that time, foreign agents were actively attempting to acquire the West's nuclear secrets and technology. Among the buyers were Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's intelligence agency, which was working with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the 'father of the Islamic bomb,' who in turn was selling nuclear technology to rogue states such as Libya."

Plame and her unit were onto a black market nuclear network, run as a cooperative effort by the intelligence agencies of Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel. Accordingly, the Turks were lured into hiring Brewster-Jennings as "consultants," but when the high U.S. official learned of this, says Edmonds, he "contacted one of the foreign targets and said … you need to stay away from Brewster Jennings because they are a cover for the government. The target … immediately followed up by calling several people to warn them about Brewster Jennings. At least one of them was at the ATC [American Turkish Council]. This person also called an ISI person to warn them." More

The Israeli connection is what's interesting about this covert operation, because it involves U.S. citizens, high government officials who have been part of an ongoing investigation that dates back to at least 1999, the earliest year mentioned in the AIPAC indictment. As Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay of McClatchy News Service reported in 2004:

"Several U.S. officials and law-enforcement sources said yesterday that the scope of the FBI probe of Pentagon intelligence activities appeared to go well beyond the [Larry] Franklin matter.

"FBI agents have briefed top White House, Pentagon, and State Department officials on the probe. Based on those briefings, officials said, the bureau appears to be looking into other controversies that have roiled the Bush administration, some of which also touch [Douglas] Feith's office.

Chavez calls for anti-US alliance

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has called on other Latin American and Caribbean countries to form a military alliance against the United States.

The vehemently anti-US leader says Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and Dominica should create one united force.

Mr Chavez, a long time critic of what he sees as US imperialism, made the comments after a summit of its leaders.

Despite constant US denials, Mr Chavez is convinced it poses a serious threat to South and Central America.

Venezuela's socialist leader has long been a critic of what he sees as US imperialism.

He has recently accused the country of trying to destabilise the region by forging stronger links with Colombia.

Mr Chavez has some key allies in his fight against capitalism, globalisation and the US.

Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and now the Caribbean island of Dominica are all members of a trade alliance known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a group that takes its name from South America's independence leader, Simon Bolivar.

Mr Chavez has urged them to draw up a joint defence policy and create a united military force against US imperialism.

"If the US threatens one of us, it threatens all of us," he said, "we will respond as one."BBC

Russia completes nuclear fuel delivery to Iran: report

Russia has completed delivering fuel for Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr on Monday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"With the last consignment, Russia has fully delivered the 82 tonnes of fuel enriched by 1.6 to 3.6 percents along with the supplementary equipment," said a statement from Iran's Organisation for Production and Development of Nuclear Energy.

Monday's delivery was the eighth consignment of fuel, which Russia began delivering on December 17.

Late last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the Bushehr reactor would be working at 50 percent capacity by mid-2008.

However the Russian constructors insist that the 1,000-megawatt plant will not go on line until the end of the year.

After delivering the first shipment of fuel, Russia said Iran no longer needed to pursue its own uranium enrichment, a message repeated by US President George W. Bush.AFP

US hails Suharto as a 'historic figure'

The United States Sunday hailed former Indonesian president Suharto as a "historic figure" who "achieved remarkable economic development," in a statement released by its embassy here.

"President Suharto led Indonesia for over 30 years, a period during which Indonesia achieved remarkable economic and social development," ambassador Cameron Hume said in the release.

Suharto died aged 86 Sunday from multiple organ failure after a three-week fight for life with heart, lung and kidney problems.

Offering his condolences on behalf of the United States, Hume praised Suharto for his close ties to the United States and his role in creating the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The ambassador did not mention the accusations of widespread graft and human rights abuses that plagued Suharto's 32-year rule.

"Though there may be some controversy over his legacy, President Suharto was a historic figure who left a lasting imprint on Indonesia and the region of Southeast Asia," the statement read.

The United States was a steadfast ally of Suharto for much of his rule, seeing the authoritarian ruler as an effective bulwark against communism and a force for stability in the region.

Human rights abuses during Suharto's rule included a 1965-1966 crackdown on suspected communists and sympathisers that historians estimate killed at least half a million people.AFP

Bush orders NSA to snoop on US agencies

Not content with spying on other countries, the NSA (National Security Agency) will now turn on the US's own government agencies thanks to a fresh directive from president George Bush.

Under the new guidelines, the NSA and other intelligence agencies can bore into the internet networks of all their peers. The Bush administration pulled off this spy expansion by pointing to an increase in the number of cyber attacks directed against the US, possibly from foreign nations. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will spearhead the effort around identifying the source of these attacks, while the Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon will concentrate on retaliation.

The Washington Post appears to have broken the news about the new Bush-led joint directive, which remains classified. The paper reported that the directive - National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 - was signed on Jan. 8. Earlier reports from the Baltimore Sun documented the NSA's plans to add US spying to its international snooping duties.

The new program will - of course - drains billions of dollars out of US coffers and be part of Bush's 2009 budget.

During Bush's presidency, US citizens have come under an unprecedented spying regime. In addition to upping its focus on suspected criminals, the administration permitted a system for wiretapping the phone calls of Average Joes and Janes. The government is also funding specialized computers from companies such as Cray that can search through enormous databases at incredible speed. Ah, if only Stalin could see us now.

The government points to cyber attacks against the State, Commerce, Defense and Homeland Security departments as the impetus for expanding the NSA's powers. "U.S. officials and cyber-security experts have said Chinese Web sites were involved in several of the biggest attacks back to 2005, including some at the country's nuclear-energy labs and large defense contractors," the Post reported.

Critics of the new directive will point to the NSA's ability to operate in total secrecy as cause for concern.

More troubling, however, may be the Pentagon and Homeland Security's aspirations to hit attackers with counter-strikes.

Proving that a nation rather than a rogue set of attackers are behind a cyber attack will likely be very difficult. In addition, the international community has yet to address the rules of cyber war in any meaningful way. The Register

Colin Powell Confronted on Depleted Uranium

Members of WeAreChange Ohio confronted former Secretary of State Colin Powell about the use of depleted uranium in four separate wars-- including Gulf Wars I & II, Kosovo and Bosnia. Powell admitted to its use, but denied its relative harm, repeatedly calling it "useful."

Powell downplays the harmful birth defects those exposed to D.U. have suffered, suggesting that he has been around D.U. himself and suffered no damage.

Audience members also asked the former Secretary of State about falsified intelligence on Iraq, which Powell handily dismissed.

Depleted Uranium has been directed linked with:

Increased rates of immune system disorders and other wide-ranging symptoms, including chronic pain, fatigue and memory loss, have been reported in over one quarter of combat veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Combustion products from depleted uranium munitions are being considered as one of the potential causes by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, as DU was used in tank kinetic energy penetrator and machine-gun bullets on a large scale for the first time in the Gulf War. Veterans of the conflicts in the Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their genes.

The Lucifer Project

A dangerous NASA experiment... or just another piece of Conspiracy Theory?

Pakistan Rebuffs Secret U.S. Plea for C.I.A. Buildup

The top two American intelligence officials traveled secretly to Pakistan early this month to press President Pervez Musharraf to allow the Central Intelligence Agency greater latitude to operate in the tribal territories where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups are all active, according to several officials who have been briefed on the visit.

But in the unannounced meetings on Jan. 9 with the two American officials — Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director — Mr. Musharraf rebuffed proposals to expand any American combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert C.I.A. missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces.

Instead, Pakistan and the United States are discussing a series of other joint efforts, including increasing the number and scope of missions by armed Predator surveillance aircraft over the tribal areas, and identifying ways that the United States can speed information about people suspected of being militants to Pakistani security forces, officials said. NY Times

AJ exposes the SPP provocateurs

Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe

AN investigation into the illicit sale of American nuclear secrets was compromised by a senior official in the State Department, a former FBI employee has claimed.

The official is said to have tipped off a foreign contact about a bogus CIA company used to investigate the sale of nuclear secrets.

The firm, Brewster Jennings & Associates, was a front for Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent. Her public outing two years later in 2003 by White House officials became a cause célèbre.

The claims that a State Department official blew the investigation into a nuclear smuggling ring have been made by Sibel Edmonds, 38, a former Turkish language translator in the FBI’s Washington field office.

Edmonds had been employed to translate hundreds of hours of intercepted recordings made during a six-year FBI inquiry into the nuclear smuggling ring.

She has previously told The Sunday Times she heard evidence that foreign intelligence agents had enlisted US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Her latest claims relate to a number of intercepted recordings believed to have been made between the summer and autumn of 2001. At that time, foreign agents were actively attempting to acquire the West’s nuclear secrets and technology.

Among the buyers were Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Paki-stan’s intelligence agency, which was working with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the “father of the Islamic bomb”, who in turn was selling nuclear technology to rogue states such as Libya.

Plame, then 38, was the glamorous wife of a former US ambassador, Joe Wilson. Despite recently giving birth to twins, she travelled widely for her work, often claiming to be an oil consultant. In fact she was a career CIA agent who was part of a small team investigating the same procurement network that the State Department official is alleged to have aided.

Brewster Jennings was one of a number of covert enterprises set up to infiltrate the nuclear ring. It is is believed to have been based in Boston and consisted of little more than a name, a telephone number and a post office box address. Full article

CIA Hackers shut down power to entire cities

Computer hackers have managed to shut down power to entire cities by breaking into the systems of electricity companies and then demanding money, a senior CIA analyst has claimed.

Tom Donahue told a utilities security conference in New Orleans all the successful hackings occurred outside America.

He did not specify what countries were affected, when the power cuts happened or how long they lasted.

Mr Donahue, who was speaking at the Process Control Security Summit, later said in a statement: "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands."

He said the CIA suspected some of the cyber-attackers "had the benefit of inside knowledge".

He added: "In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."

A CIA spokesman declined to provide additional details, saying: "The information that could be shared in a public setting was shared. These comments were simply designed to highlight to the audience the challenges posed by potential cyber intrusions."

The Bush administration is increasingly worried about the little-understood risks from hackers to the specialised electronic equipment that operates power, water and chemical plants, known as Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. These are increasingly connected to the Internet.

Hackers first launched such a pattern of cyber attacks followed by subsequent blackmail attempts against the online gambling industry six or seven years ago.

In a test last year, the Homeland Security Department produced a video showing commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that an enormous generator shudders as it flies apart and belches black-and-white smoke. Full article

Pointing fingers at the plutocrats

In an extract from his provocative book Who Runs Britain?, Robert Peston looks at the roots of the current financial crisis and blames a political pact with the super-rich for impoverishing the rest of us

When the going was good, investment bankers, hedge fund managers and partners in private-equity firms all did very nicely from the bonuses and the capital gains and the fees generated by the frenetic manufacturing of deal after deal after deal. Many of them are now paying a price for failing to understand the risks they were taking on. Don't weep for them. They have already extracted fortunes.

It is most of us who are paying for their foolhardiness, as the pricking of a financial bubble they created has a negative impact on all our prosperity. Months, possibly years, may go by before banks are prepared to lend as freely as they had been doing. The price of money is going up for all of us, and the economy is slowing down, because regulators and governments did not dare stop the over-exuberant behaviour of greedy traders, bankers and financiers. In fact, the Government encouraged the excesses of these super-rich individuals and their financial servants because they were thought to be good for London and good for Britain. London Telegraph